The Dutch designer, known for her elaborate 3d-printed designs and for outfitting Lady Gaga, called upon artist Lawrence Malstaf to create an installation on the runway, placing fully dressed models Iekeliene Stange and Soo Joo Park in giant plastic bags, shrink-wrapping them so that they looked like floating (and fashionable) embryos. They were given oxygen through a tube. In most photos we've seen of the show, they also look terrified, adding to the creepiness of it all.

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Another dramatic element of the show was the wild footwear: Recalling the impossible-to-walk-in armadillo shoes from Alexander McQueen's sea creature-inspired spring 2010 collection, models wore heel-less shoes with shin guard-like shafts that wrapped around the back of their knees (see below). According to a rep for United Nude, with whom the shoes are a collaboration, the shoes were created through a 3D printing collaboration with Julia Koerner, and have a seven-inch platform. We're not sure whose jobs were more difficult: The models hanging out in the Ziplocs or those who had to come down the runway wearing these shoes.

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Photos: Imaxtree

The collection itself was beautiful -- futuristic and feminine with plenty of interesting shapes, fabrics and textures -- but some critics noted that it was tough to focus on the clothes with the distracting set.

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PARIS--Mechanical Couture, an exhibition which opens next week at Israel's Design Museum Holon, calls attention to the couture-tech courtship. So we thought it was time we caught up with Dutch designer Iris van Herpen, whose S/S 2011 collection includes a fossil-thin bolero made by what is essentially a 3D printer. From collaborations with Ecco leather, Rem D Koolhaas' shoe line United Nude and choreographer Nanine Lenning, Iris manipulates materials into structural explorations that have brought weary showgoers to their feet. We tracked Iris to her Paris showroom to find out what it's like to go hi-tech...and to demand an explanation for her absence from London Fashion Week last month, where the 26-year-old designer has been showing since her graduation from talent incubator Central Saint Martins.
Your shows are always jaw-droppers and a highlight of LFW, what made you bow out so soon before?
I skipped LFW this season because after I showed a few pieces at Amsterdam (Fashion Week). I got a lot of nice orders and I was crazily busy with them at the time. Also the most difficult pieces were ordered, like the water dress and the huge water collar! I did not think I would ever to be able to make them again, but, surprisingly, I am doing it at the moment.

PARIS--Iris Van Herpen is perhaps one of the most creative designers we’ve seen during couture week. Her clothes are made from materials and techniques that are rarely seen in a fashion studio, ranging from plastics used for product design to methods used in architecture.
Her collection yesterday was inspired by digital technology--and that was expressed both in technique and in design.
Her clothes are made using various computer programs, which “allows me to obtain results that would be impossible to do entirely by hand," Iris told us about her trademark fish scale-like plastic materials, created out of thousands of superimposed, hair-thin strips.
As for the clothes, they looked like they walked right out of Avatar, and we had to keep reminding ourselves we weren’t staring into our computer screen.